I'm Extremely Sorry!

If you're like most people, you have played, or at least have heard of, Crazy Uno, a twist on Mattel's classic card game that assigns special powers to some of the cards to make the game more interesting. Again, if you're like most people, you have played, or at least have heard of, Parker Brothers' Sorry!, a 2-4 player game in which players attempt to move the pawns from their start around the board to their home, trying to avoid getting sent back to start by an opponent. But what if the classic simplicity of this childhood favorite was replaced with an extreme competition of ultimate revenge inspired by the insane elements of Crazy Uno. This is Extremely Sorry!

After I read the original Sorry! instructions as a formality and brainstormed a list of extra rules to add, I was ready to start preliminary testing with my family. The basic concept I followed was to only add "extreme" rules to cards that already had special powers, meaning a 12 still simply meant you move a pawn forward twelve. But a backwards four, for example, could now be used on an opponent's pawn as well as your own. I also altered some of the fundamental rules of the original game, such as the safety zone... safe no more. After playing a three-player game with the first draft of rules, we made some changes and offered up various alternatives to try. In two other games (with two players and four players respectively), we decided on the best alternatives and final rules.

Overall, the integrity of the original game was preserved. No matter how close someone got to winning, everyone still had some chance until the very end. It did however increase the length because players were given more ways to send an opponent's pawn back to start. In our tests, a two-player game took 25 minutes, a three-player game took 45 minutes, and a four-player game took a little over an hour. 

I encourage you all to dig out your Sorry! boards and try out the official Extremely Sorry! rules, linked here with your families and friends. Special thanks to my family for testing the game with me and my dad for coming up with this idea. Read carefully and good luck.